Players bought in, his spread offense worked and the Wildcats exceeded expectations. You know, everything that didn’t happen with Rodriguez at Michigan. Rodriguez still must prove he can recruit hidden gems like he did at West Virginia (see: Pat White, Steve Slaton). If he can, the first Rose Bowl in program history isn’t far away.

The Sun Devils stopped a deflating second-half losing streak by winning the last three games of the season, including the Territorial Cup and a bowl game. The big question: Is Graham, a textbook coaching nomad, in it for the long haul—and can he become a program builder?

The only failing grade of the group of new coaches because he was the only coach who didn’t survive—even though he technically had a 10-month contract and wasn’t hired until April of 2012. Disorganized, distracted and unmotivated: three awful traits for a team. Didn’t help that some players quit early in the season to protect their NFL futures.

Ron Zook, the guy fired to bring in Beckman, got the Illini to the postseason three of the last five years—and left Beckman a team capable of the same. Illinois was inept on offense, awful on defense and winless in Big Ten play—scoring a combined 94 points in eight league games. That old Toledo offense better show up in a hurry for Beckman.

The only thing worse than the constantly changing schemes on offense was one victory (KU won two games in 2011) and a horrible defense. Weis knows this, and has a new idea for 2013: the Bill Snyder plan. Yep, he’s taking a page from his Kansas State rival and building with junior college players. Only one coach in college football has been successful doing this: Snyder.

One of the game’s bright young coaches proved he could control a potentially damaging situation (playing with NCAA sanctions and no postseason) by holding together a talented team and winning eight games. And it could have been much better: The Tar Heels lost three games by a combined nine points. Handling the next two seasons with the impact from scholarship reductions—but with the postseason available—will be just as difficult.

The big question was which Urb would Ohio State get? He answered that with dogged recruiting and influential motivation of a team playing for nothing—but still playing for an unbeaten season. Meyer hit the perfect storm: a talented team that bought in, playing in a watered-down conference and playing with house money. Let’s see what happens this fall when huge expectations are thrown into the mix.

Freeze could have been the national coach of the year if voters would have looked a little closer. Not only did Ole Miss end a 16-game SEC losing streak, the Rebels were a handful of plays from beating Texas A&M and LSU and having a monster season. Freeze followed that up with the best recruiting class in school history. How much different will this team play in 2013 as the hunted?

O’Brien took an unimaginable, untenable situation and thrived in it. No one would have blinked had Penn State tanked to a 3-9 season after losing its first two games to Ohio and Virginia. But the Lions not only won, O’Brien, officially hired in January 2012, showed an ability to gets his team motivated to play—and have them schematically prepared. Major scholarship reductions will cripple the program over the next 5-7 years unless Penn State gets relief from the governor of Pennsylvania’s proposed lawsuit against the NCAA.

This grade should probably be an A, especially considering all that Chryst walked into at Pitt. On the outside, the Panthers did what they’ve always done: got bowl eligible and played poorly in a bowl game. That Chryst got this team to the postseason— with all the coaching turmoil and turnover of the last three years—is remarkable.

So much for the idea that Flood, named head coach Jan. 31, 2012, was hired to save a recruiting class. Rutgers was a couple of bad breaks in a home loss to Louisville from winning the Big East and playing in the Sugar Bowl. In all those years and all that hope under former coach Greg Schiano, Rutgers was never that close to playing in a BCS bowl game that late in the season.

No matter how you look at it, Texas A&M was playing as well as any team in the nation by the end of last season. Hottest team, hottest player, hottest coach. The Aggies rode that momentum to a top-10 recruiting class, and have finally become a legitimate threat to win the national title—after years of standing in the shadow of big brother Texas. All in one year under Sumlin.

Never coached at the college level, never recruited. And by the end of November, the Bruins had whipped rival USC and were playing for the Pac-12 championship. Had UCLA closed the deal against Stanford and won the Pac-12—it had numerous chances—Mora’s grade would be an A. Especially considering how well he and his staff have recruited in two cycles.

Possibly the most damning example of how it didn’t work in Year 1 for Leach was the play of QB Jeff Tuel. The on-again, off-again starter had his worst season in four years—when he probably should’ve had his best in Leach’s pass-happy offense. The Cougars never bought in, and Leach constantly berated his team as “soft” and as “zombies.” Year 2 will be critical for Leach to find a quarterback—and start winning games.